Planning – When planning social media strategies, it’s important to look 6 months in advance with a broader vision of up to a year and a half. Planning should include the initiatives that are part of the campaign, which platforms will reach the most supporters, what content will be shared with the community and what tangible goals will be measured.

Target Audience – There is always a desire to reach as many social media users as possible with your message – successful campaigns are almost always focused on a target audience. Supporters that fit a specific demographic will be motivated by the content you put out there whether via your website, blog or social media so all should be tailored to your target community and not simply the general public.

Call to Action – It’s critical to be direct with what action you want supporters to take. Calls to action can be to ask for monetary or in-kind donations, sign a petition, volunteer time to a campaign or an event, or a request for supporters to share content with their own networks. Regardless of the type of call to action, it’s important that it is made clear without being over-stated or over-played as this could turnoff supporters.

Mobile Friendly – I often mention that as the technology pendulum swings away from PC and towards mobile devices, it is more important than ever to ensure that all digital marketing tools (websites, blogs, emails and social media initiatives) are mobile friendly. A recent report by KPCB puts the percentage of mobile traffic at 15% of overall internet traffic as of May 2013 and trending at a growth of 1.5 times per year to an anticipated 30% by the end of 2014. Although there are many mobile apps to help, it is your responsibility to ensure all recipients or visitors are able to view your content as intended regardless of their choice of apparatus.

Prioritize – It can be very overwhelming to plan a dynamic, multi-tiered social media campaign. In fact it can be nearly impossible to maintain a presence on each and every network available in the social media landscape. Prioritize what’s most important and focus on the platforms that best engages the most of your community. Depending on the time and resources you have available, it may not be possible to get everything accomplished. By focusing only on select networks that represent the best return for your (limited) time will be the best route – you may not get to as much as you would like but it’s better to manage fewer networks well than more networks poorly.

With our givacause project we have found that social media posts is by far the best way for causes to create awareness and raise funds. This post will make it into our list of resources we provide to help NPOs increase the effectiveness of their campaigns.